Mum flying from Sydney to US slams flight attendant who told her off for crying baby

2 years ago

A new mum has slammed a flight attendant she claims told her it was “unacceptable” for her baby to cry during a long-haul flight this week.
Krupa Patel Bala and her husband were flying from Sydney to San Francisco on United Airlines on Tuesday with their eight-month-old son, who began crying early in the journey.
According to reports, Bala - who detailed the incident in a Facebook post that’s since been deleted - and her husband were approached by the chief flight attendant after five minutes.
The airline staffer “yelled” at Bala’s husband, saying it was "absolutely unacceptable" for their baby to cry and said the noise was stressing out the crew members.

She advised the couple, who were travelling in Business Class, to pick their son up out of his bassinet to soothe him, but soon returned and asked Bala to accompany her to Economy so they could discuss the issue.

There, the new mum was told she shouldn’t have tried to put her baby to sleep so soon, that she should have given his bottle back sooner, and that some airlines won’t allow babies in Business Class.
While this isn’t the case for United Airlines, the attendant allegedly claimed the airline’s “rule book” forbids babies from crying on flights “for more than five minutes”.

"When I asked to see the rule book, I was laughed at and told I could see it when we landed because there's no internet," Bala reportedly wrote on Facebook.
Returning to her seat, the mum purchased some in-flight Wi-Fi so she could share the incident on Facebook and confirm there was no rule regarding the amount of time babies are allowed to cry on United flights.
Bala says she also asked some of the other crew members whether they were disturbed by the crying, with none knowing what she was talking about.

In a statement to Fox’s KTVU, United Airlines said airline representatives contacted Bala through social media before meeting with the family upon arrival in the US.
There, they apologised, offered a refund, and “ma[d]e clear that the experience she relayed doesn’t reflect our commitment to serving our customers.”
“Young families are welcome on our flights, including in business class,” the statement read.
“We are continuing to review the incident internally and the flight attendant is being held out of service pending the investigation."
Though she has no plans to fly with the airline again, Bala praised the representatives as “lovely, kind, wonderful”, adding that the flight attendant remains unapologetic.